Chapter 1: Introduction

Background of the study

Every organization is competing and is trying for their best presence in the market and so for educational sectors. All the organizations should be aware that one of the most required sources for their organizational development is by providing special attention in keeping their human resources up-to-date in terms of knowledge, working excellence, or information technology as this is the main core function in the organization. Organization’s goal and success can be achieved by developing the core function in human development which are coaching, employees’ performance and how their affects the latter. Coaching activities in organizations are important as continuous learning and development in a modern organization. Due to this statement, organizations are willing to spend big money in utilizing their human resources respectively for learning and coaching sessions. Organizations in the United States spend about $82.5 billion in coaching individually per year (Statista Research Department, 2020). And slowly this same culture is being developed in the context of Nepal and has started in banking sectors so far. To remain competitive in the growing competitive market, every organization must ensure their employees continually learn and develop for enhancing their skills. Ultimately this will lead to organizational progress and development.

Employee performance refers to how the workers behave in the workplace and how well they perform the job duties obligated to them (Murithi, 2014). When employee performance is poor, the customers are not satisfied and thus see negative impacts on the profits, company reputation and sales. Conducting employee performance evaluations is an easy way to find the need for additional coaching and mentoring to improve the workforce. The company typically sets performance targets for individual employees and therefore the company as a whole stay in hope that the business offers good value to customers. The effectiveness with which organizations manage, develop and stimulate their employees is an important cornerstone for how organizations perform (Armstrong & Murlis, 2004). On the basis of the foregoing definitions reward management could be characterized as a motivational tool employed in recognizing employees on the endeavors added to the organization.

During daily work processes, employees may face demotivation and low self-esteem as they found challenges and problems in their daily work nature. Their insufficient continuation of self-development might affect the performance in fulfilling the assigned and specified tasks with their skills and competency. Organizations have increased competition due to globalization, changes in technology, political and economic environments and thusthe organizations are compelled to coach their employees to prepare them to regulatethe maximum output i.e., to enhance their performance. Employee performance is a crucial building block of any organizationthat lays the foundation for the top performance. It enables the organization’s goals to be consistently achieved in both an efficient and effective way (Anderson, 2012). Coaching allows the organization to adapt, compete, excel, innovate, produce, be safe, improve service and reach the target consumers in the best possible ways. In this technologically dynamic era, upgrading of services and adaptability to the changing environment is the most essential for the very survival of an organization. Coaching the employees is a tool that can assist organizations in building a more committed and productive workforce. Hence, it is the responsibility of all organizations to reinforce thejob performance of the workersand implementing coaching sessions to beat the existing challenges.

Employees are the organization’s most valued assets that need continuous capacity-building activities to stay competitive in a competitive industry. For any organization to achieve the desired goal, each employee in every department must perform their best. Therefore, it is every organization’s responsibility to enhance the job performance of the employees. Certainly, the implementation of coaching sessions is one of the mainsteps that the majority of organizations got to achieve. Employee coaching encompasses various activities intended to support staff in meeting performance expectations and growing individuals professionally. Human resources are important as they are the property of the organization, employees should be convinced that they canbe an honestsource of gaining competitive advantage and coaching is the only way of developing organizational propertythrough building employees’ competencies (Houger 2006). Therefore, organizations need to develop and design its human resource management in such a way that it will fit into the organization’s structure so organizations can achieve their goals and objectives effectively within the specified time. Relating to the educational industry in Nepal, specifically teachers coaching activities in Nepal began with the establishment of the College of Education in 1957.

The total number of teaching staff in Nepal is more than 100,000. About 48% are trained whereas others are untrained. The total percentage of women in the total teaching workforce is only around 15% and others are men. At the primary level, about 95% of teachers have the minimum required qualifications and 5% are unqualified. Among them only 45% are academically qualified, licensed and trained. At the lower secondary level, 93% of the teachers have minimum required qualifications and only 31% of a them are qualified and trained. At the secondary level, about 90% of teachers have the required qualifications. Among them only 41% are academically qualified and trained. The percentages are low because of the lack of coaches in the schools for providing coaching to the teaching and non-teaching faculties in Nepal.

There is growing acceptance that large-scale educational reform is required to meet the existing challenges of the existing era. There is an emerging evidence-base that coaching is a powerful tool to support learning and development for students, teachers, school leaders and their educational establishments (Devine, 2013). A variety of coaching approaches areused successfully for bringing revolution change in educational organizations. Some of the approaches are behavioral coaching, solution-focused coaching, cognitive and cognitive-behavioral coaching, instructional coaching, executive coaching, peer coaching, and positive organizational leadership. The coaching approaches are also reviewed so that they are supported to bring the positive change in the three main educational actors: students, teachers, and faculties and leaders.

In addition, the organizations are flatter; there are broader management roles and lower job security which also have been contributing factors to the growth of coaching. This in turn means that newly skilled individuals want more responsibilities and performance and coaching can hence support these individuals in achieving these changes. It also shows the focuson lifelong professional learning and learning throughout one’s life time is becoming increasingly vital in today’s society (Jowett, 2012). Coaching assists many learning milestones which leads to more employees to learn effectively as compared to traditional learning methods. In the present context there is an adverse need in today’s organizations of individual learning and development in recognizing development need of the employees, help in personal problem solving and planning of activities to be undertaken by employee (Jarvis, 2014). So, the provision of feedback to the employees during the coaching also plays equally important role in imparting the knowledge to the employees.

Coaching is a powerful tool for personal change and learning (Devine, 2013). There is already a shift within theteacher role in educational settings from instructor to facilitator (Griffiths, 2005) wherein teachers are starting to help students “to learn instead of teaching them” (Whitmore, 2002). Coaching aims to support the performances of students, teachers, school leaders and hence the educational institutions of which they are part. Coaching employees helps to improve performance by enhancing the individual skills and helps them better understand their role in the organization. In context of educational organization, how to effectively transform the knowledge to the students, how to effectively communicate with the guardians and parents of the students and concerned publics. When the employees know about what they should do and what they should not do they can be able to perform at the higher level. Coaching also helps to make able to the employees to start thinking smartly. The coaching also helps in achieving goals. Creating strong coaching culture helps drive lasting change by setting achievable personal and business specific goals. The personal goals will focus around the employee’s personal ongoing career development. The organizational goals focus on moving the organization forward smoothly. Achieving organizational goals goes hand in hand with improving employee’s performance and training them in the right skills. By investing the organizational employees through coaching the organization can help close the skill gaps to reach the goals faster. Coaching to employees in an organization can help create stronger relation within the team members. They can become more comfortable with the team leaders and they can be more willing to seek help when any problems arise with them. Building the relationship with the teams can also act as the catalyst to create more opportunities for positive communication and feedback. Regular on-going coaching is one of the best ways to engage the employees effectively. Coaching also helps to develop the problem-solving skills. This develops their confidence in making decisions and moving forward when faced with any obstacles. Then the employees are coached to solve problem themselves, the organization is itself setting up for the greater productivity. Thus, coaching to the employees results in higher employee engagement and this results in stronger organizational performance and lower employee turnover.  

Statement of Problem

In any organization many factors are prevailing that affect to achieve the desired goal. The main factor on which the organizational performance and durability remains is employee performance. Many factors are there that affect the employee performance. So the one who is responsible to lead the team especially managers should be aware and be ready to improve all the times. If the managers are willing to receive the best performance from their fellow employees, then the managers are required to provide the employees with the sufficient tools and techniques which are needed for their daily job roles. Managers must encourage the employees to have the best efforts on what they are doing for. This will help to improve the performance of the employees. According to Kets (2015) coaching can also be done in groups in order to create high performing teams. Further, coaching is important for the reasons that it could give empowerment to the employees, because of the privilege to have responsibility. Coaching can also motivate the employees to change and it can also enhance employee’s cooperation (Kruzela, 2011). The employee coaching help to realize the employees with their roles and the techniques to develop the tools to eradicate the problems faced during the daily works. Performance coaching is very important for any organization because it improves the employee performance and keep them aware of their competition.  Many organizations including educational organizations do not take coaching as the matter importance due to which the organizational leaders do not understand the needs and basic importance of the employees which will result to the low performance. But the coaching should not be taken as the subject of hate, but it should come along with the strategic planning. Even the coaching should not be taken as the subject of isolation because it itself is the combination of several aspects. Coaching provides motivation and support to the employees. It also empowers the employees in some of the organizational decisions that are important to the organization. Every organization is willing to have the self-motivated employees and one of the ways to improve the productivity of the employees is implementing coaching in respective organization. The recognition of the importance of coaching in recent years has been heavily influenced by the intensification of competition and the relative success of organizations where investment in employee development is considerably emphasized (Sultana et al., 2012).

Coaching is necessary to ensure an adequate supply of employees that is technically and socially competent and capable of career development into specialist departments or management positions. Coaching can also be done in groups in order to create high performing teams (Kets, 2015). Further, coaching is very important for the reasons that it could give empowerment to the employees, by providing privilege to have responsibilities. Coaching can also motivate the employees to change and it can also enhance employee’s cooperation (Kruzela, 2011). In Nepalese context, performance of the organization depends on the expectation of the employees from coaching (Pandey, 2008). Most of the employees used to remain motivated by personal benefits that can be obtained by performance coaching.

Though there have been a number of observations regarding to the importance of employee coaching for the need of employee productivity, there is very few studies that cares about the effect of coaching on employees of educational sectors. The findings might be effective and may effectively apply in some situations but it is not clear whether these results would uniformly persist for other countries like Nepal and sectors including educational sectors as well all classes of employees which present a knowledge gap. So, there is an existing gap in the research of this area in educational sectors.  and an increasing need for employee productivity, there are few studies that look at the effect of coaching on the performance of employees. There is an existing gap in research of this area. The current study is done in order to address the gap and explore the effect of coaching in employee performance in educational sectors.

Objectives of the Study

i.    To examine the effect of frequent feedback provision on employee performance in educational sectors.

ii.   To evaluate the effect of a structured coaching plan on employee performance in educational sectors.

iii.  To determine the effect of the coaching environment on employee performance in educational sectors.

iv.  To analyse the effect on coaching on employee performance in educational sectors.

Hypothesis

On the basis of the independent and dependent variables under study following hypothesis were formulated:

H1:   There is significant relationship between role of coaching and employee performance in education sectors

H2:   There is significant relationship between feedback provision and employee performance in educational sectors

H3:   There is significant relationship between structured coaching plan and employee performance in educational sectors

H4:   There is significant relationship between coaching environment and employee performance in educational sectors

Definition of Variables

Coaching:

A coach is an individual whose is involved in instructing, directing and training an individual or teams’ operations (Coggins, 2011). The interaction between the coach and coachees is known as coaching session. Coaching as training or development process via which an individual is supported while achieving a specific personal or professional competence result or goal (Ference, 2011).

Employee Performance:

Employee performance is defined as the effectiveness, quality and efficiency shown by the employees in the workplace to perform their job duties. Performance is closely related to efficiency and effectiveness (Neely, 2000).

Significance of Study

To the Educational Institutions

The main objective of this research is to find out the effect of coaching in employee performance in educational sectors. It is expected that the report drawn from the research will help in improving the implementation of coaching sessions to increase the employee performances especially in educational sectors.

To the companies which provide coaching services to educational institutions

The research reports regarding the employee performance in educational sectors are lacking locally. So, the companies which are proving the coaching and mentoring services especially to the educational sectors will have information regarding the effect of employee performance which will help to enhance the coaching experience their impact on business of employee coaching. Further, in addition this report helps them to understand the coaching dimensions of the educational sectors of Nepal.

To the researchers conducting research in coaching and employee performance

In context of Nepal, there is not enough study regarding the effect of coaching in employee performance specially in educational sectors. So there has been knowledge gap within Nepal and there is insufficient data which leads to difficulty in analyzing the data. This study has tried to evaluate the coaching system in the educational sectors. It is hoped that the study will help the researchers for their reference in the study of effect of coaching in employee performance.

Scope of Study

The population of the research study was the teaching staffs of Schools at Gokarneshwor Municipality, Nepal. The duration of one month was provided to the data collection was within a period of one month between June 7, 2021 and July 7, 2021. There are many factors that affect the employee performance in an organization. The coaching is one of them. In context of educational sectors, the coaching trend is just beginning. Many institutions are conducting coaching sessions nowadays to enhance the productivity of their employees. The Schools in Gokarneshwor region are conducting the coaching program which trains the teachers and assistants which enhance the skills of teaching, classroom management, leadership skills and personality development. The organizations have developed the coaching model having trainee centered. The coaching focuses the teaching staffs from pre-primary level to the leaders of the institutions. This research focused to those employees of the staffs who are involved in formal coaching at their institutions.

Limitations of Study

The following are the limitations of the study:

i.    The findings of the study depend purely on the response given by the sample respondents.

ii.   The research is limited to Gokarneshwor municipality of Kathmandu valley.

iii. Only those respondents who have an understanding of this issue were chosen i.e., educated, people without understanding of the concept are ignored.

iv. The population size of this research is in thousands which is difficult to reach to. Therefore, a limited sample of 209 respondents from Gokarneshwor municipality was taken.

v.   Samples was selected using convenience method. Data collection was done through online questionnaire via google forms.

Outline of Report

This chapter has introduced the study on the topic of effect of employee performance in educational sectors. The topics which were taken into account of discussion are: background, statement of the problem, objectives of the study, significance of the study, scope of the study and definition of variables. Chapter two covers literature review, chapter three covers research methods, chapter four has the results and findings, chapter five covers the discussions, conclusion and implications.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Introduction

This chapter includes the reviews of the literature on the related topic of the study the effect of coaching on employee performance in educational sectors. This includes the reviews of articles, books, journals, electronic library published by various authors on the related topics. The chapter is prepared as per the research questions. The chapter includes the literature reviews on the effect of the coaching on employee performance. The chapter will be wrapped up with the summary of the covered aspects under this chapter and a brief introduction of the next chapter.

Role of Coaching Sessions in Workplace

Coaching processes are an important tool for improving the individual level performance of human resource (Cacho et al, 2015). In daily activities performing in an organization, the employees may face various types of troubles. In order to eradicate those troubles effectively in daily activities, the leaders of the organization play the vital role. Additionally, the coaching can also provide the knowledge on how to overcome the hurdles faced during daily job roles. Coaching and mentoring plays the important role in supporting the professional practice of employees (Rhodes, 2004). He refers to a number of potential benefits to employees in receipt of coaching and mentoring support, including enhanced confidence and self-esteem through the mutual support offered by colleagues. He also suggests that the engagement of support using coaching and mentoring activities by employees may assist with the transfer of employee learning, resulting in greater impacts within the workplace and the potential to raise organizational standards.

Coaching Sessions and Job Satisfaction

Nowadays there have been many debates regarding to the importance of job satisfaction in the workplace. There is great deal of attention of this matter from the stake holders especially from economists and policy makers. Traditionally, economists had distrusted the use of subjective and attitudinal variables, but early papers established that job satisfaction was related to a number of objective job features and was able to predict consequences such as absenteeism and quits (Hamermesh, 1977; Freeman, 1978; Borjas, 1979). Similarly, the level of employee engagement at the workplace is brought by the coaching and this will create the job satisfaction to the employees. The level of job satisfaction varies from one individual to another depending the job itself, the person’s personality and the past experience. (Spector, 1997). Coaching is the medium from which the manpower utilization is improved which ultimately results in improving the job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is measured in various attributes like productivity, product quality, turn over, pay rates, organizational performance etc.  Job satisfaction is brought by the educational and skills matching too. Allen and Van Der Velden (2001) differentiated between education and skill mismatches, finding only a weak relationship between the two. Importantly, they found a significant negative relationship between skill mismatch and job satisfaction, while the links between educations mismatch and job satisfaction was insignificant. Thus the improving job satisfaction has a larger impact on their performance (Frijters, et al., 2004).

Coaching Sessions and Performance Effectiveness

There are a number of difficulties in establishing linkages between coaching and workplace performance, not least in measuring the latter, there being no single definition (Angela, 2014). Angela further adds coaching is unlikely to be a single generic cause of productivity or profitability; there are a number of ways in which organizations can become successful, including re-skilling and work intensification. Coaching can be the mediator which can stimulate the employees to utilize the available tools and resources to achieve the organizational goals. In fact, the coaching can show a good direction to the employees but there should exist engagement of employees in the coaching sessions with the tuning of coach. Coaching goals lie at the heart of coaching and the main thrust of the coaching process is to engage the coach and client in a series of action orientated conversations that result in beneficial outcomes for the executive and the organizations (Grant, 2015). The research reports of case studies need to establish criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of coaching using objective data, as opposed to subjective dimensions such as employee satisfaction (Lowman, 2011). Coaching effectiveness, since is the subjective matter so cannot be categorized as black and white but can be measured in terms of employees’ satisfaction. Objective data can be collected from the employees for measurement of performance effectiveness. The 360-degree feedback tools provide only partial evaluative data and that criteria must also be based on knowledge about adult development and behavioral change theories (Goodstone & Diamante, 2012). The performance effectiveness is the measurement of behavioral changes also there exists some difficulty to get the complete objective data and should be dependent upon the subjective data too. And when the subjective data is needed to collect it must be collected carefully and be representative of the population being studied (Kampa & Anderson, 2011). In order to find out whether there is improvement in employees’ performance the following indications can be used: change in behavior, self-understanding, effective leadership and organizational satisfaction. The literature and research surrounding goals and goal attainment and the various methods, models and techniques that coaches use to guide goal attainment is vast and beyond the scope of this literature review (Peltier, 2011). However, there does seem to be a gap in the coaching literature and research in regards to exploring what particular methods, models and techniques best support particular goals (Bono et al., 2011).

Feedback Provision

Feedback refers to the informational reaction from coach to the employees regarding their daily job performance. It is also the tool which can promote the employees’ self-confidence and develop the strong determination towards the job. It shares universal acceptance in many types of coaching and has been found to be a strong determinant in promoting self-esteem in employees coaching (Smith, 2010). It is also the way to help the employee gain greater insight concerning his or her own subjective experience, which can lead to better management of personal emotions. Additionally, the self-awareness gained through the process of assimilating feedback is key to maximum performance as a leader (Diamante, 2012). During the coaching session to the employees, feedback plays the vital role to open up for the employees and can forward their difficulties. It also helps to develop the relationship between coach and coachee. But the feedback should be given carefully and righty manner. It is advised that feedback should be accurate, detailed and subject oriented rather than subjective and with evaluation. The feedback provided by the coach concerning the good performance helped to enhance the subsequent performance (Maurer, 2011). The employee performance may effect on how the employees receive the feedback of the coach in the workplace. In the workplace the coach may provide feedback to the employee, elicit feedback from the employee, or manage the process of receiving, reviewing, and utilizing feedback from internal and external workplace sources (Christensen, 2013). The 360-degree full feedback tools should be used by the coach to enhance the employment development.  The results which are provided by the coach should be made confidential because it may result in the threatening condition. The way of helping an individual change their behavior is to provide feedback and create insight concerning behaviors in a way that is non-threatening and can be received in context of psychological safety. Therefore, the coaches should give the encouragement to the employees and should provide the corrective feedback.

Feedback Provision: Removing Obstacles

The feedback in the coaching at the workplace can be the effective tool to remove the obstacles. Effective coaches help others to achieve results by building on their strengths,

developing their skills, providing encouragement, and increasing their confidence. It requires getting the employee to examine his own performance and find ways to improve performance. Resource for Removing Obstacles; the coach can act as an important resource for removing those employees that act as obstacles to others thus paving way for some to progress, the coach can also provide needed resources to employees who need to progress, the coach can also act as a sounding board for a worker as the worker comes up with his or her strategy for overcoming an obstacle (Coggins, 2011). Evaluating employee performance can provide management with information necessary for the success of the organization (Nzuve 2010). The evaluation can reveal strengths and weaknesses of the personnel and indicate areas in which training, transfers, or recruitment is needed. The appraisal can also give feedback about the effectiveness of supervision. A person learns most effectively at work when he associates what he is learning with his job. By learning about a job and improving his skills, he should improve his performance and waste less time on repeating work. Feedback is often provided to employees formally through performance appraisals. Research has shown that the effectiveness of a team depends on the three performance processes if a team meets the three important criteria, it is more likely to perform better compared to a team that is not able to fulfil one or more of the said criteria. As with other processes, these three performance processes are susceptible to process loss but also present an opportunity for process gain, which is where coaching functions come into action (Wageman, 2011). Interventions made by coaches to inhibit process losses in each of the performance process and promote process gains are called Coaching functions (Wageman, 2011).

Coaching needs to change the entire workforce from traditional method to the newly adopted technological methods. Even the leading roles of the organization has to be changed. For instance, the traditional roles of monitoring and controlling their juniors to that of being their consultants with their junior staffs. This will help in solving many obstacles which are faced by junior staffs. The most important function of team coaches and identified three features of group interaction which affected the team performance effort levels; first, the group’s knowledge secondly, the skill level of the group and third how appropriate the performance strategies used were (Hackman, 2011).

Thus coaching interventions are best used when the team seeks to address two of the interventions at the beginning or midpoint of the process (Murithi, 2014). While one intervention sough to improve interpersonal relationships among group members the other sough to come up with the most appropriate strategy for the task at hand (Woolley, 2010; Hackman & Wageman, 2015). Therefore, it is said that the workforce need to gain the experience of the task they should do before they come up with strategies on how to tackle the task. Hence, coaching should be the supportive hand and should include giving feedback to the employees throughout the whole year especially in performance management.

Feedback Provision: Performance Improvement

Employees work best when they feel that they are making a contribution to the client

and the organization. Each employee needs to feel confident that they can do the job effectively and efficiently. As the coach, coach should also show the confidence towards the employees which affects their performance and so as for the organizational leaders.

It is very important to give positive feedback to employees in the organization based on

their efforts made, as well as their achievements and results. It is important to show them how the organizational team has belief towards them on the ability to do the job effectively. Feedback provision in coaching has become the most important factor in the business world today, because training increases the efficiency and the effectiveness of both employees and the organization (Furqan & Mohammed, 2011) and feedback helps them to improve confidence towards their performance. Coaching is a systematic restructuring of behavior, attitude and skills through learning- education, instruction and planned experience which requires to be well transformed in the employees. The major purpose of coaching is to assist the organization to achieve its short term and long-term objectives by adding value to its human resources. Therefore, coaching is need based in the sense that they are undertaken to fill some knowledge gap within an organization (Gunu et al., 2013). Improving Performance; as a coach, the manager is responsible for creating a learning environment where employees are supported in their efforts to continuously improve to meet today’s challenges (Bandalos, 2013). Feedback must be introduced early in the learning experience and acknowledged as an integral part of the coaching. The coach further develops performance by checking the representative current capacity; giving the employees feedbacks; asking the employees to call attention to for what good reason requirements are there to perform better and giving freedoms to the worker that can fill the current hole. Coaching is important as it enables the employee to be empowered as part of the decision-making team (Berger, 2015). Thus, another objective of coaching is the improvement of abilities so that the recipient can be capable to settle on choices and address difficulties.

Structured Coaching Plan

The quality of coaching plays the vital role in the quality of outcomes. Coaching should be person centric and should be focused towards change or performance. The coaching process generally occurs during individualized coaching sessions, which are strategic results-focused business meetings between the coach and executive. Coaching is a way to promote self-discovery, allow for the expression of wisdom, increase clinical effectiveness, and encourage innovative thinking (Schaub, Luck, & Dossey, 2012). It also helps those being coached to build personal mastery and the ability to effect change in them or in their organizations (Godfrey et al., 2014). The significant challenge for many coaches is their own deeply held views that frame their thinking about situations (Simpson, 2014). Coaching used as a strategy is helpful in providing organizations with specific employee development tools and frameworks that, when implemented, can yield better and sufficient outcomes for accomplishing aim. Coaching support leaders and frontline staff to remain client centred, focusing on quality, safety, and satisfaction, while concurrently adhering to cost-effectiveness. Goal setting and a structured coaching plan can be taken as a highly effective motivational tool and has been demonstrated to increase management productivity (Locke, 2011). Combining goal setting with publicly posted feedback and praise enhanced employee’s performance (Anderson, 2012). Goal setting in combination with feedback was also found to increase performance in managerial interviewing skills (Nemeroff, 2011). Although there are many social-psychological variables associated with goal intention, the strength of an individual’s intent to follow through is thought to have a positive effect on self-regulation of behaviors (Bandura, 2012). Employee’s performance is a system used in most organizations to determine the abilities and output of an employee. The five components of employee performance are: monitoring, planning, training, rewarding and developing. The planning stage involves setting goals so that the employees work time can be measured, steps can be analysed and the coach can see if the employee can meet the set goals or reach new goals. Monitoring is the process in which the set goals are looked at to see how well the employees are going to meet the goals. Feedback is also provided in which employers determine if progress is being seen or not. The employee improves any poor performance at the developing stage. The rewarding stage is the last stage at the end of the cycle.

The coaching sessions are typically constructed to be time-sensitive and complimentary to the executive’s everyday business life (Stern, 2012). There are different ways in which coaching can be structured in line with the needs of the clients and the coach availability (Stern, 2012). The coaching process is generally designed to help a client to independently make choices and decisions that attain goals when the coach is no longer around, so life-long dependency, which is ethically questionable, becomes unnecessary (Wellner, 2012). The challenge of establishing the best fit between coach and executive may take on an added layer of complexity in international organisations where a dearth of executive coaches may narrow the available pool of best fit coaches (Abbott, 2011). Moreover, less opportunities might exist for another coach to establish a strong relationship of trust with the executive. In the international context, telephone coaching may be necessary but may impede relationship building, which takes on extra significance in relationships with cultural barriers (Bresser, 2012). Likewise, if the coaching is taking place in cultures that are resistant to helping interventions, then more effort may need to be expended in building the relationship.

Performance can be said to be a construct that is multidimensional and used to achieve targets, the term also is strongly linked to a firm’s goals (Mwita, 2010). The organizational leaders like managers are expected to use their abilities to the maximum extent and at all levels provide their efforts without being supervised. However, there exists too many expectations from managers working for an organization regarding the achievement of the goals in an organization. The expectations are fulfilled in some cases but in other cases it may not be fulfilled. If the expectations cannot be met the leaders should consult the organizational directors for the best direction to take. It is thus paramount that the staff working at the frontline be developed such that they can perform their duties individually and in an innovative manner while at the same time being able to understand and foresee existing business and market situations. Consequently, a question arises about how an employee can work more efficiently and effectively to increase the productivity and growth of an organization. An effective coaching program can be of an immense assistance to help increase productivity and engagement of staff in an organization.

As there is a tendency toward self-protection, unsuccessful achievements are generally not attributed to low ability or competence abilities (Skaalvik, 2010). Research shows that individuals tend to protect the self by attributing unsuccessful outcomes to controllable factors for instance, “I can work harder or work smarter next time” or to external factors that are unstable or due to external variables such as another person or the situation for example, I didn’t succeed because of the unique circumstances in this task and as soon as those circumstances change, I shall be successful” (Skaalvik, 2010). Coaches look into a client’s environment and situation so as to understand the clients operating context. The assessments may comprise the pre-coaching diagnostic work a coach performs in order to prepare for the coaching engagement (Jarvis, 2013). Coaches may use informal assessments (such as interviewing and shadowing) or formal assessments (such as 360-degree multi-rater or assessment tests) in order to form a greater understanding of the client’s needs, challenges and strengths (Coutu & Kauffman, 2011). Pre-coaching diagnostics may also help to determine a baseline that can then be measured post-coaching to quantify and qualify any areas of growth, improvement or change (Allsworth & Griffin, 2015). As teams take ownership through the team coaching model, professional development, competence, pride, and joy in the workplace occurs for coaches and staff (Godfrey, 2013). The coach helps the team to use their collective knowledge and resources, develop interpersonal skills, and learn group processes that support quality improvement. Coaches experience increased confidence with communicating in conflict situations, giving negative feedback, using reflection, eliciting perspectives, listening, and recognizing barriers to team performance (Murithi, 2014). Staff involved believed that coaches inspired motivation and fostered the acquisition of quality improvement skills. Coaching leads to staff engagement, as well as the creation of conditions for successful quality improvement initiatives to occur (Nelson, 2008). In addition, team members developed humanistic competencies for facilitating group dynamics and reframing communication. Staff engaged in respectful and collaborative behaviours as they came to understand each other’s role in the quality improvement process (Godfrey et al., 2013). Similarly, with the engagement in this process can receive the appreciation of the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in effective quality improvement processes.

Coaching Environment

The developed trends in coaching has motivated for the evaluation of a coach who is not isolated but an influencing member of the society that can influence and shape the overall performance of the employees in an organization. Therefore, scheduling, coaching and the game itself are not a cut-off procedure but are included in a social environment (Denison, 2010). Actually, the coach does not work isolated in a field or gym; on the contrary the coach interacts with athletes of different cultures, colour or race, age, philosophy and experiences (Potrac et al., 2000). Moreover, the reactions of coaches and players are not linear and absolute; they are subjective and negotiable (Purdy and Jones, 2011). Coaching is directly concerned with the immediate improvement of performance and skill by a form of tutoring or instruction. Coaching is, in effect, one step removed and is concerned with the longer term acquisition of skills. Effective coaching requires both the coach and the person coached to fulfil their relative roles. Consequently, the relationship between the coach, the players and the environment is dynamic, interdependent and the coaching process is shaped on a common basis and not one-sidedly (Cushion, Armour & Jones, 2006). Factors that affect the success of coaching outcome are divided into two namely; skills and abilities and employee related factors. Employee related factors include the employee commitment, willingness and motivation in regard to sticking to the provided plan that seeks to achieve the laid down goals. The second category concerns the skill and ability of the coach to provide structure, foster trust and rapport, and appropriately choose the correct coaching tools to use in each coaching scenario. Finally, the roles are not strictly defined; rather they are redefined within the team and are unique (Poczwardowski, Barott & Henschen, 2002). It is obvious that two coaching situations are never similar. There exist large number of factors that affect the coaching environment. Today, despite the importance of the social environment, the design and orientation of coaching is mainly psychological, physiological, technical and tactical (Woodman, 1993). Finally, even though the environment’s effect is now unquestionable, the coach should administer the environment by controlling the coaching environment which is the primary role of the coach. Coaching goals lie at the heart of coaching and the main thrust of the coaching process is to engage the coach and client in a series of action orientated conversations that result in beneficial outcomes for the executive and the organisations (Grant, 2015, Grant & Cavanagh, 2014, Grant & Zackon, 2014). The methods, models and techniques that the coach uses derive from a host of sources, some grounded in previously established empirical research and others that have only anecdotal validity (Peltier, 2011). In the literatures relevant to this study, there exists a debate that the coach should control the environment. On the one hand, there is the absolute view that the coach is fully responsible for the coaching environment and any effect it may have on the employees. More particularly, high level coaches, and perhaps not just them, are considered exclusively responsible for the results (Mallett, 2006). The coaches should be in control of everything and they should have foreseen a solution to every problem (Short, 2004). A more compromising view claims that the coach is affected by the environment but should also adjust to it and administer it since the coaching design is not independent to the environment that created it (Denison, 2010). Based on the aforementioned, although on the one hand the job of the coach becomes more difficult, since the environment should be handled in an effective way, on the other hand it becomes easier, since there is no need to discover the one and only method that will lead to the absolute result (Denison, 2010). An important weakness observed in the related literature to this study is that the factors that surround and affect the coaching process are not mentioned and neither are the specific criteria that have an effect on the coaching performance. The present overview underlines the specific gap in the literature, highlights the most important environmental criteria and presents suggestions for future research. The Coaching environment can be defined as the “direct or indirect, internal or external to the employees, situational, social, sport or physical conditions that influence the coaching process, the coaching performance and results” (Denison, 2010). The effective coaching within an organization appears to integrate the dynamics of individual psychology approaches with the needs of the organization on both individual and system levels, taking into account the environmental context of each intervention (Lowman 2015). A complete understanding of the corporate culture in which the coaching intervention is taking place is also essential (Richard, 2013). The degree of performance achievement depends on a number of variables, internal or external, including the varieties of experience of both parties in coaching relationships, their interpersonal skills, motivation and commitment. The literature and research surrounding goals and goal attainment and the various methods, models and techniques that coaches use to guide goal attainment is vast and beyond the scope of this literature review (Peltier, 2011). However, there does seem to be a gap in the coaching literature and research in regards to exploring what particular methods, models and techniques best support particular goals (Bono et al., 2011).  

Employee Performance

Performance can be defined as the achievement of specified task measured against identified standard of accuracy or predetermined, completeness, cost and speed (Vasanthi & Basariya, 2018). In a work contract, performance is considered to be the achievement of a responsibility in such a way that delivers the entertainer from all liabilities set down under the agreement (Vasanthi & Basariya, 2018). Proficiency and viability in the work are elements of representative performance separated from intensity and usefulness and instructing is a method of expanding person’s exhibition.

Representative performance is the significant factor and the structure block which builds the presentation of by and large association. Representative performance relies upon numerous variables like occupation fulfillment, information and the board however the main factor of employee performance is preparing and advancement. (Afaq & Khan, 2008). There is a positive connection among preparing and worker performance. Preparing produces benefits for the representative just as the association by emphatically affecting worker performance through the advancement of representative information, abilities, capacity, skills and conduct (Rani, 2017). Clearly preparing assumes a significant part in the advancement of association, further developing performance just as expanding efficiency, and in the long run placing organizations in the best situation to confront contest and stay at the top.

In an employment contract, performance is deemed to be the accomplishment of a commitment in such a manner that releases the performer from all liabilities laid down under the contract (Vasanthi & Basariya, 2018). Efficiency and effectiveness in the work are ingredients of employee performance apart from competitiveness and productivity and coaching is a way of increasing individual’s performance.

Employee performance is the important factor and the building block which increases the performance of overall organization. Employee performance depends on many factors like job satisfaction, knowledge and management but the most important factor of employee performance is training and development. (Afaq & Khan, 2008).

Employee performance is normally looked at in terms of outcomes. However, it can also be looked at in terms of behavior (Armstrong, 2010). He also stated that employee’s performance is measured against the performance standards set by the organization.

There is a positive relationship between coaching and employee performance. Coaching generates benefits for the employee as well as the organization by positively influencing employee performance through the development of employee knowledge, skills, ability, competencies and behavior. It is obvious that coaching plays an important role in the development of organization, improving performance as well as increasing productivity, and eventually putting organizations in the best position to face competition and stay at the top.

There are a number of measures that can be taken into consideration when measuring performance using productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, quality and profitability measures as briefly explained hereafter. Profitability is the ability to earn profits consistently over a period of time. It is expressed as the ratio of gross profit to sales or return on capital employed (Wood & Stangster 2002). Efficiency is the ability to produce the desired outcomes by using as minimal resources as possible, effectiveness is the ability of employees to meet the desired objectives or target (Gilbert, 1995). It is a process of measurement of how the individual, organization and industry converts the resources into goods and services. The measure of how much output is produced per unit of resources employed, productivity is expressed as a ratio of output to that of input (Lipsey 1989). It is a measure of how the individual, organization and industry converts input resources into goods and services. The first thing to remember is that employee performance does not occur in vacuum. We have to take systems perspectives and look those factors that contribute for enhancement of employee performance (Murithi, 2014). Some of these factors are information, resources, incentive, knowledge, capacity, motivation and coaching. In fact, there is an increasing awareness in organizations that the investment in coaching could improve organizational performance in terms of increased productivity, enhanced quality, market share, reduced turnover, absence and conflict.

It is the above-mentioned contradictory ideas and problems that lead the researcher to choose this interesting topic to study. It is also believed that the outcome of the research will benefit those who will like to study further in the area of the impact that coaching has on employee performance. Employee performance may be related to numerous factors within the workplace, such as overall job satisfaction, knowledge, and management but there is a definite relationship between training and performance, as training programs can address numerous problems that relate to poor performance (Amisano, 2017).

According to a study and many other research works on productivity of worker highlighted the fact that employees who are satisfied with their job will have higher job performance, than those who are not fully satisfied with their jobs. Moreover, it is alwaysstated that employees are more likely to turnover if they are not fully satisfied and hence, are not fully motivated enough forgood performance. Employee performance is higher in happy and satisfied workers and the management found it easier to motivate high performers to attain organizational targets. The employee might beonly satisfied when they feel themselves competent to perform their jobs, which is achieved through better coaching programs. Additionally, as noted, it is the responsibility of the organizational managers to ensure that the organizations strive to and thus achieve high performance levels. Hence, they will treat themselves for setting goals and standards. Companies should be always sure that the employees are contributing for the production of top-quality services by the means of performance management. The management should always encourage to the employees for involving in planning and for the entire process of the performance management. This also helps to develop the motivation to the employees and hence creates the higher performance level.

Research Gap

The literature review provides the importance of relationships in coaching with the employee performances and also gives examples of how to establish effective coaching in the workplace. The literature provides for both individual and organizational needs. Most of the literature found was done specifically on coaching effects in the banking industry. Other many researches are done on the sporting and manufacturing sectors. This study’s aim was to fill this existing research gap by doing a research on the effects of coaching on employee performance in educational sectors of Nepal.

The literature review on educational sectors has a number of gaps in the research. Most of the existing literatures were based on banking sectors, health sectors or sports. The study’s topic effect of coaching on employee performance was lacking the literatures in educational sectors.

Summary

The success or failure of an employee to accomplish their desired outcomes with coaching can be influenced by many factors. There are three aspects that are essential to coaching effectiveness in organizations (Kilburg, 2012). The first two are the employee’s and coach’s commitment to the path of progressive development. The second is the coach’s understanding on the employee’s characteristics and mindsets along with the problems and issues they bring to coaching.

This chapter mainly focused on giving more literature which show the significant relationship between, coaching and employee performance, feedback provision during the coaching sessions and its effects. Further on, the upcoming chapter presents the research methods; research design, the population of the study, the sample and sampling techniques, instruments for data collection and method, data analysis and presentation methods and the research procedures.

Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework for this study is shown in the figure 2.1. The independent variable is the coaching and the dependent variable is the employees’ performance in the educational sectors.

Based on the figure, the coaching and employees’ performance are directly inter-related. The job performance of employees changes on the basis of the presence and involvement in the coaching sessions conducted by the organization. Therefore, the performance of the staffs is directly affected by the coaching sessions in the educational sectors.